WICB Hints at Lifting Eligibility Rule

There are strong hints from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that the controversial eligibility requirements for selection to the senior squad will be lifted.

WICB head honcho Wes Hall basically made it clear the current rules are robbing players of earning a living from overseas contracts and hinted strongly the rules could be changed in time for the 2003 World Cup, scheduled for South Africa.

"We feel like people, like McLean (Nixon), Rose (Franklyn) and Drakes (Vasbert) who are now doing well in South Africa, should be in a position to play when we go to the World Cup in South Africa," Hall said, according to a report in Guyana's Stabroek News.

To be eligible for selection to the senior team, current rules require West Indies players to participate in the regional Red Stripe and Busta Cup competitions but, because several key players opted for lucrative contracts overseas (mostly in South Africa), an argument has erupted over the wisdom of the rules.

Adding fuel to the fire is pending litigation by former opening great Desmond Haynes, who slapped a suit against the WICB in 1995 after he was not considered for selection, because of the WICB eligibility policy.

Insiders believe Haynes's chummy relationship with the new WICB executive body (Haynes and Hall are close friends) will lead to a withdrawal of the lawsuit, clearing the way for a reversal of the policy.

According to the newspaper report, Hall highlighted the problem the WICB faced with paying retainer fees to cricketers to stay and play competitions in the Caribbean. "It costs about $640,000 for us to retain our cricketers on a yearly basis, and to get them to stay at home, train and play cricket properly," he said.

Because the WICB cannot afford to keep players at home, Hall said West Indies cricketers go to England and South Africa and since their season coincides with the West Indies regional season, those players are automatically ineligible to represent the senior side.

"Barbados has done well in giving their players tax free cars, that's a help but, what we need is some help to get enough money to put about 20 players on contract. If we don't it means that we can't expect them to play for US$300 in the Busta Cup and US$300 in the Red Stripe Bowl and then when the big money come in South Africa, they can't go there because they are tied to this root and then they are there at the whims and fancies of the selectors," he said.